Thursday, 31 January 2013

By Nathan Feiles, LMSWCreating motivation when feeling depressed can be one of the most difficult things a person can do. An episode of depression can be physically and emotionally draining. The simplest of tasks seem to take maximum effort, and sometimes even beyond maximum. Some may feel lethargic. It may be tough make meals, or clean up at home, or take showers, or even get out of bed.Navigating motivation when depressed can be tough because the instinct is to wait for the energy to return. People who are depressed often fall into the trap of trying to wait it out — that if you give in to the urge to stay in bed for a few days, that you’ll be re-energized and recharged, believing you’ll have exorcised the depression demons by just “going with it”.Unfortunately, it’s not usually as simple as this. If everybody tried to wait out their depressive episodes, some people would be in bed for 20 years, realizing somewhere along the way that depression actually tends to breed depression if it’s not actively confronted. That’s right, catering to our depressive urges actually reinforces them.Obviously, actively doing anything doesn’t sound so desirable when feeling depressed, let alone confronting our depressive urges head-on. While it’s important to give depressive symptoms their attention and get to understand and learn about what’s underlying the depressive episode, the concept of “mind over matter” can help create motivation when depressed. I have seen evidence with many people that creating a change in mindset with small, manageable, behavioral steps can change a whole experience of depression. For some it’s brought their symptoms entirely into remission. This doesn’t replace taking the steps to learn more about what’s causing the episodes, but these steps can help us move on with our lives while we continue to work on the underlying issues.Let’s look at some steps that can help break an episode or a cycle of depression.1) Opposite Action – In Dialectical-Behavioral Therapy (an offshoot of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy), Opposite Action is the idea of forcing yourself to do something that you know is good for you, in order to prevent the reinforcement of a bad habit. For example, if you want to stay on the couch and watch tv all day, when realizing this only gives in to depression, opposite action would say to get up and go out, knowing it would be a healthier behavior. It’s very much a “just to the opposite of your unhealthy urge” technique. In CBT, the principle is that your behaviors can create positive changes in your emotions.2) Set an Alarm – This isn’t only for getting out of bed. The alarm can be for anything that marks a symptom of depression. You might set an alarm to wake yourself up at a certain time to make sure you get out of bed in the morning; or you might set an alarm to signal a meal time if you’re missing meals, or signal time to do laundry, or run a particular set of errands, and so on. The alarm serves as a cue to draw your attention to a target area where you want to become more active in change.3) Make Your Bed – Getting out of bed can be very tough with depression. The first step to take is to sit up on the bed, put your feet on the floor, and visualize leaving all of your troubles and thoughts behind you in the bed. Then, get up and nicely make your bed, leaving the troubles behind for the day. Making the bed is essential in this process, as it signals to your brain that there isn’t an option to get back in the bed for the day. As you make your bed, it can also be helpful to imagine the troubles you’re left behind dissipating as the covers are pulled up.4) Wash Up – The more routine-setting steps you’re able to add on after you make your bed, the better. Try washing your face and brushing your teeth to help wake you up. With these kind of steps you’re training your brain to understand that you’re getting ready for “something,” rather than simply a day laying around.5) Get Dressed – This is a crucial step in separating from the bed to the day. Sitting around in pajamas on the couch is still possible, even if you escape the bedroom. Getting dressed decreases the urge to lounge, because again you’re reinforcing in your brain that you’re getting ready for something.6) Go Outside – This can be one of the toughest steps for people who struggle with depression — actually leaving the house. One of the problems with this step is that people are easily held back by not having a place to go. “Okay, I can go outside…..but then what?” So for this step, the idea is to not have a place to go. The goal is going outside, not the particular place you go once you’re outside. Go outside, close the door behind you, and do whatever comes to mind — a walk around the block, down the street, pacing in front of your house, getting in your car and driving on an errand, and so on. It can be anything or nothing at all, but the goal is to spend at least ten minutes outside before going back in.7) Choose One Exercise – Getting your body moving is a good way to start feeling better. Choose an exercise that works for you: walking, running, swimming, jump-roping, etc. Whatever you choose to do, make it a point to do it every day when you go outside. And if it’s an indoor exercise (like a treadmill), do it before you go outside.8) Make a List of Activities – Brainstorm activities that you’d enjoy doing. Include things to do at home and out with people. Try to generate a list of things that includes others and that gives you some time to yourself. The activities can be a mix of productive (e.g. work-related) activities, and hobbies, and self-care.9) Schedule Activities – Schedule the activities throughout the week. Try to plan out either one or two weeks ahead of time and actually write the activities into your calendar with specific days and times. Spread them out as much as possible and make sure to stick to the schedule.10) Daily Necessity Schedule – This schedule is if you’re having trouble getting motivated to do your daily activities — such as eating, cooking, showering, or other household chores. For this, you’re creating a daily home schedule. Choose the specific times you’re going to do each activity every day. It can be as specific as you feel you need: time to get dressed, brush your teeth, start cooking, eating, showering, turning off the tv before bed, and so on. This is to help you get your daily necessities actually functioning on a daily basis.11) See Family and Friends – This one is more about the people than the activity. Being around other people is often helpful for mood improvement. Schedule specific dates and times with friends and family, outside of the house. The more you can remove yourself from the environment of depression (usually the home and bedroom), the better chance of overcoming it.

12) Psychotherapy – It’s important to keep in mind that the desire to stay inside and and lay around isn’t what causes depression — it is a symptom of depression. Psychotherapy remains a necessary step throughout the process of dealing with depression in order to prevent further episodes, reduce severity, and hopefully be rid of depression altogether. Even if we can resolve some of the motivational issues through pushing ourselves to take behavioral steps, the internal issues that are causing the depression still need to be addressed. Otherwise, when our motivation drops, the depression may return if we don’t have a handle on the underlying issues.What’s most important to keep in mind is that you’re not going to feel like doing anything discussed above. If you’re going to wait to “feel like it”, then it may not happen. Using opposite action will be the necessary first step to conquering depression — knowing in your mind that it will be good for you to take the steps to move forward, and just doing it. By also engaging in psychotherapy, you’re still able to give appropriate attention to what’s happening inside of you, including if medication therapy may (or may not) also be helpful. You do have the power to increase your motivation and to break out of depression. It may take some effort, but the opportunity is there for you to reclaim your life.

By Mike BundrantLonely people produce more inflammation-related proteins in response to acute stress than those who feel socially connected, according to a recent study. In other words, living in a state of loneliness is similar to living in a state of chronic stress.
Of course, we all know that chronic stress is associated with, a number of life-threatening conditions, including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease.
Lisa Jaremka, of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University and lead author of this research said, “It is clear from previous research that poor-quality relationships are linked to a number of health problems, including premature mortality and all sorts of other very serious health conditions. And people who are lonely clearly feel like they are in poor-quality relationships.”

What is loneliness, really?

I’ve always thought of loneliness as a feeling – a certain pain in the midsection, or a whole body ache that longs for connection.
If we look at loneliness structurally, as we tend to do in NLP, we could define it as “distress that results from discrepancies between ideal and perceived social relationships.”
In other words, loneliness has less to do with how socially engaged you are and more to do with how you perceive your relationships. If your relationships are less satisfying that you believe they could or should be, then are you more likely to be lonely.

Now that we’ve entered into the arena of perception, things get interesting.

It now seems possible to experience chronic loneliness regardless of how many friends and associates you have. It is also possible to experience contentment and social satisfaction with a relatively few friends, or theoretically, no friends at all. The bottom line is, if you expect something that you are not getting, you are more likely to feel the lack, or loneliness.
All this supports the case to learn communication skills to strengthen and deepen connections other people. It also seems critical to develop a healthy sense of self – acceptance of your feelings and self-esteem. Without a solid relationship with yourself, no amount of interactions with others will suffice.
It also raises the question, “What are you expecting from others and how likely are those expectations to be met?” The most common unmet relationship expectations in adults appear to be recycled childhood expectations.
For example, should I expect my wife to nurture me even when I am being a jerk? Should I expect my colleagues to respect me even when I chronically underperform? Should my friends still want to be around me after I talk about them behind their back? And so on – these kinds of childish expectations rarely deliver satisfaction and connection.

The bottom line: Should we expect love, respect and connection when we are not offering the same?

These are tough questions. Loneliness is painful. And I am NOT suggesting that loneliness is the fault of the lonely one. I think this one is really worth thinking through and taking as much personal responsibility as possible.
Try on the following questions and leave a comment with your thoughts. If you experience chronic loneliness:
1. On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate your relationship with yourself? If you dislike yourself, you will unwittingly invite others to do the same.
2. Are you self-critical? If so, you unwittingly invite others to think less of you, too.
3. How do others perceive you? If you put yourself in their shoes, do they see someone who is open to connection?
4. How mature are you emotionally? To the degree that you are emotionally regressive, you unwittingly require others to help shoulder your burden.
5. How do you perceive others? Are they people with burdens similar to your own, or do you see them as “problem-free” or having an unfair advantage in life? If so, you will unwittingly push them away.
Again, these are tough questions and they might seem unfair to someone in pain. All of them, however, highlight issues to deal with and point the way toward greater social connection.

By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.Our brains are amazing, so amazing that even with all the wonderful advances in technology, neuroscientists are only still scratching the surface as to the way they work. But this fabulous brain can work for us and it can work against us stressing us out, sleepwalking into addictive behaviors or just leaving us feeling far away from any semblance of balance. But the moment we realize we’re out of balance is a moment where we have touched a glimpse of balance.This space of awareness is a “choice point” to understand this nugget of wisdom and practice:

“When we are able to settle into truly being present to ourselves, we begin to get the sense that home lies within us. There’s nothing to get, we already have it, it’s all right here.

The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has a wonderful phrase that helps us realize this:

‘Breathing in, I have arrived. Breathing out, I am home.’You can shorten it to ‘arrived’ on the in-breath and ‘home’ on the out-breath.Take a minute to practice this and notice what arises.”~ Mindfulness Meditations for the Anxious Traveler

Saying these phrases along with the breath is grounding. Focusing on the breath brings awareness to the body which has been shown to be inversely correlated with our mental ruminations about the future and the past. At the same time you’re reminding yourself of this ancient wisdom that you have already arrived to the only point there is to arrive to, “here.” In this place called “here” you are home, have everything you need and it’s going to be okay.

Practice this for yourself a few times throughout the day and definitely when you’re traveling. Allow your experience to be your teacher.

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Even today, between work and home, women have a lot to juggle. “Though in recent years, men have been more hands-on with household and childcare responsibilities, the bulk of the work still, for many, lands on the woman’s shoulders,” said Terry Matlen, ACSW, a psychotherapist and author of Survival Tips for Women with ADHD.
Whether you have kids or not, balancing a slew of commitments can get overwhelming for women with ADHD, said Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D, a psychotherapist and author of several books on ADHD, including 10 Simple Solutions to Adult ADD. That’s because the nature of ADHD makes it tougher to prioritize and schedule, she said.
And, unfortunately, it’s common for women with ADHD to beat themselves up for not getting things done. Many women feel incapable and struggle with low self-esteem, Matlen said. “Women with ADHD are well aware of their shortcomings, but often they don’t understand [them] in the context of their ADHD brain.”
Here, Matlen and Sarkis, who both have ADHD, offer their tips for coping with overwhelm when you have the disorder.

Create Structure

Structure is vital for people with ADHD, and it’s key for calming the sensation of being overwhelmed, Sarkis said. Without it, she said, inertia can set in, leading to even more stress over time. When creating a structured schedule, record everything you need to do each day. Block off free time, too.

Get Educated

Educate yourself on how ADHD affects you, Matlen said. For instance, ADHD has nothing to do with being incapable, unintelligent or lazy. ADHD is a medical disorder that impairs your executive functioning, or your ability to plan, prioritize, organize and pay attention.

Take a Step Back

Reassess your situation and options, Matlen said. For instance, if you have kids and work full-time, can you switch to a flexible schedule, work from home or go part-time? “Know that once your children are older, the workload as a parent often retreats and full time work might be easier,” she said.

Hire Help

This might mean hiring a housekeeper, professional organizer, bookkeeper and babysitter, even when you’re home, Matlen said. Many people mistakenly believe that hiring professional help is a luxury. It’s not.
As Matlen explained, “it’s an accommodation so that the adult woman with ADHD can manage her full schedule without falling apart.” For instance, hiring a bookkeeper to manage your bills and filing not only helps you stay organized but it also lets you avoid overdraft fees and IRS penalties. (And those definitely get pricey.)

Set Limits

“It is important to set limits and say ‘no’ to the things that are not a good use of our time, or things that do not make us happy,” Sarkis said. Saying no can feel uncomfortable, especially if you’re a people-pleaser.
If this sounds familiar, Sarkis suggested these three strategies.

Recognize that you might be a people-pleaser.According to Sarkis, a people-pleaser does things for others to their own detriment. They withhold their feelings or give until it hurts. They may be afraid of showing their “true self” because of a fear of rejection or dislike by others.

Consider the reasons you don’t set limits. For instance, Sarkis said, is it because you’re iffy on what setting limits entails or you’re worried what’ll happen when you do decline?

Determine which activities provide energy and which drain it. Then consider how you can minimize or eliminate the negative ones.

“The more you say “yes” to things you enjoy and “no” to unhealthy or non-beneficial things in your life, the happier you will be.”
And always remember that it’s OK to say no, she said. “In fact, it is one of your rights as a person.“

Revise Your Expectations

Avoid setting sky-high expectations, and comparing yourself to others without ADHD. As Matlen said, “Don’t expect your home to look like your neighbor’s or sister’s. When ADHD is in the mix, it’s imperative to give yourself some slack.”

Seek Therapy

Women with ADHD can feel especially overwhelmed when their ADHD isn’t being properly treated. Seek therapy with a clinician who specializes in adult ADHD. Therapy can help you manage disruptive symptoms – and dismantle decades of diminished self-esteem, Matlen said. Plus, a therapist can help you establish structure for your day, Sarkis said.

Reassess Your Relationships

“You need people in your court – people who understand you and will not judge or berate you,” Matlen said. She suggested surrounding yourself with loved ones who understand and accept you, and letting go of people who don’t and of toxic relationships.

Remember Your Strengths

When you’re overwhelmed, it’s easy to forget your strengths and focus on your shortcomings. But Matlen encouraged readers to focus on strengths. “You may be a great listener, have musical or art talent, be full of exciting ideas and projects, etc.”
Having ADHD is overwhelming enough. But when you’re juggling many responsibilities and wearing many hats, you might feel like you’re sinking.
As Matlen said, remember to cut yourself some slack. Re-evaluate your schedule, consider all your options and seek support. ADHD is a real disorder that disrupts your daily life. But with some help and readjustments, you can curb your stress and anxiety.

By Christine StapletonI find it really ironic that we’re being forced to look at the consequences of the horrendous lack of care and compassion we have shown the mentally ill while many lawmakers and the “53 percent” are simultaneously doing their damnedest to cut what they call “entitlement” programs.

Have we really sunk so low as a society that it takes the death of twenty little kids and the six adults who tried to protect them for us to look at how we have ignored, shunned and stigmatize those who roam the streets mumbling to themselves, sleep in urine stained stairwells littered with empty bottles or carry a cardboard sign asking for food?

Let’s collectively admit we are hypocrites and bigots. Let’s stop going to church on Sunday and professing to love Jesus and all he stood for and then turn on Fox television and cheer for the lawmakers who want to cut what they call “entitlement” programs for these lazy addicts, alcoholics and mentally distressed who we believe have chosen to spit on our American work ethic.

Do you really believe that when these people were kids they said, “When I grow up, I want to be a junkie with rotting teeth” or “I want to hear voices that scare me,” or “I want to be a mass murderer?”

No, they didn’t say that. That is not what they wanted. And the only way we’re going to get to a point where we are willing to give a penny of our hard-earned money to care for and about the mentally ill is if we get over our self-righteous indignation, admit we have not “loved our neighbor as ourselves” and that we have judged – oh boy have we judged – while professing to live a judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged lifestyle.

Food stamps, residential treatment, free and low-cost food, housing, therapy, prescriptions – you’re going to have to get used to paying for these things for people you don’t like. Get over it, accept it and make the best of it. Or, you can keep on painting everyone who gets government assistance as inferior, bad human beings who don’t deserve what you call a “free ride.”

Let’s be honest. We really don’t know how many people getting government assistance are gaming the system. We also don’t know how many of them have an untreated mental illness, such as alcoholism. (Yes, alcoholism is a mental illness). We have a choice. We can continue to do a half-assed job of taking care of people – especially adults with mental illnesses – and continue down the road we are on or we can change.

Change is not only going to take a monumental shift in our feelings and behavior toward people with mental illnesses, it’s going to cost money. A lot of money and you and I are going to have to foot the bill. There will be money wasted. People will game the system. But people are gaming the system now and we are already wasting billions of dollars warehousing the mentally ill in prisons and to refusing to pay for their medications, housing and food and care.

Look where that has gotten us. We cannot keep doing the same things and expect different results. We are going to have to suck it up, open our pockets and hearts and do it. If we fail, we try something else. We pay for programs and research until we find what works. That’s the way we do things in this country. We don’t give up.Depressed man in stairwell photo available from Shutterstock

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

What Healthy Brains Sound Like: How Brain Music Therapy is Helping First Responders

What does your brain sound like? Does it have its own soundtrack?
Why are these important questions?Your brain’s internal soundtrack could help you cope with stress, fall asleep more quickly, and give you more energy throughout the day.
Here’s a little background: In the 90’s, brain researchers from Russia teamed up with musicians and engineers to create a brain monitor that was capable of recording and translating brain activity into music.
From there, Galina Mindlin, MD, PhD from St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital created Brain Music Therapy, a way to use an individual’s “brain music” to help them cope with stress, fall asleep more quickly, and give them more energy during the day.
Dr. Mindlin published a randomized controlled study in the November 2011 issue of the Journal of Neurotherapy that investigated how Brain Music Therapy can help policemen and firefighters in their everyday lives.
Mindlin and her team were curious to see if listening to specific tracks of brain music could help the first responders improve their mood, daytime function, and sleep quality.
Forty-seven first responders were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group.
Each member of the experimental group received two of their own brain music MP3 files and was told to listen to one at night to help them fall asleep and one in the morning to help energize them. The control group received MP3s of someone else’s brain music.
Measurements were taken before and after four weeks of Brain Music Therapy.
Researchers found the experimental group made significant improvements in sleep quality, insomnia, mood, and daytime function compared to the control group.
This study shows the power of our own brains to help us heal. In fact, you might say that our brains are our most powerful allies. If we know how to change our brains, we can change our lives.

The psychiatric wolves attack more innocent children

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 by: Jon Rappoport

(NaturalNews) To understand even a little bit about real psychiatry, versus the false picture, you have to know that someone running around the streets naked and screaming has nothing to do with a mental disorder.

If you can't grasp that, you'll always have a lingering sense that psychiatry is on the right track. It isn't, and never was. Not from its earliest days, and not now, when it has the full backing and force of the federal government behind it.

Psychiatry is the kind of all-out fraud few people grasp.

In a moment of weakness and exhaustion, Allen Frances, the most famous and honored psychiatrist in America at the time (2000), understood part of it. He told Gary Greenberg of Wired Magazine, "There is no definition of a mental disorder. It's bullshit. I mean, you just can't define it."

BANG.

That's on the order of the designer of the Hindenburg, looking at the burned rubble on the ground, remarking, "Well, I knew there would be a problem."

This was an admission that the bible of the profession, the DSM, the latest edition of which Frances himself had led in compiling, could not draw separations between the 297 official mental disorders listed in it. It was, in other words, a pretense. The whole bible.

In a PBS Frontline episode, Does ADHD Exist?, Dr. Russell Barkley, an eminent professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, spelled out the fraud even more clearly.

Here it is.

PBS FRONTLINE INTERVIEWER: Skeptics say that there's no biological marker - that it [ADHD] is the one condition out there where there is no blood test, and that no one knows what causes it.

BARKLEY: That's tremendously naive, and it shows a great deal of illiteracy about science and about the mental health professions. A disorder doesn't have to have a blood test to be valid. If that were the case, all mental disorders would be invalid...There is no lab test for any mental disorder right now in our science. That doesn't make them invalid. [Emphasis added]

Oh, indeed, that does make them invalid. Utterly and completely. All 297 mental disorders. They're all hoaxes. Because there are no tests of any kind to back up the diagnosis.

You can sway and tap dance all you like and you won't escape the noose around your neck. We are looking at a science that isn't a science. That's called fraud. Rank fraud.

But you see, we're still left with the naked man who's running around the street screaming. What is he? Doesn't he have a mental disorder?

He does not, because the term "mental disorder" isn't just a colloquial phrase, it's a technical designation, and it underpins everything that psychiatry is. And there is no basis for its diagnosis. None.

There are many reasons the man may be running naked in the street. If he has a blood clot or lesion on his brain, if he has been poisoned, if he folded up and left this world as a child after he received a vaccine, if he has been pushed over the edge by Paxil or Zoloft, if he has been brutalized and is terrified, if he has been given electric shocks by a psychiatrist, if he is on Vicodin, if he has snorted cocaine laced with some horrible filler, if he has been driven mad through starvation, if he has been harassed by people who are threatening his life, he could be running naked in the street.

That is a matter for honest and complete discovery. It isn't an occasion to slap on the label, "mental disorder."

Now that President Obama has decided the expansion of mental health services must be effected to protect us all from people with guns, we are looking up the immediate road at government programs in schools, among other disastrous innovations.

Children are concocted as a prime target for early diagnosis of non-existent mental disorders, because in the past, a number of these children, diagnosed and drugged by psychiatrists, went on to kill people as a result of the drugs' actions on their brains. That's called irony. It's also called a crime, in the very real sense that psychiatrists contributed mightily to the killings.

So now, every child in school who twitches the wrong way or picks up a bubble-gum toy shaped like a pistol, or points his finger at a friend and says Bang, or looks sad and lonely for ten minutes at the back of the class on a rainy Tuesday, or draws pictures when he should be adding numbers in his notebook, or wears odd clothes, or gets angry for any reason at all, or objects to taking a vaccine, or wears a jacket with a small American flag sewn to the shoulder, or doesn't play well with others, or makes a positive statement in class about the Bill of Rights, or reminds a teacher of a little criminal in a movie, or has a bottle opener in his pocket, or dreams in class about designing a rocket that will take people to Mars...can be referred to a counselor, who in turn will refer him to a psychiatrist, who will make some sort of off-the-shelf diagnosis, which will travel with the child for the rest of his life, making the child believe he has a brain problem, and the psychiatrist will prescribe that child drugs like Ritalin, Adderall, Zoloft, Paxil, or Prozac, drugs that scramble neurotransmitter systems and can very certainly cause that child to go violent.

That is the reality.

When Obama announced his intention, in the wake of Sandy Hook, to go nuclear with expanded mental-health services across the country, the president of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Dilip Jeste, praised the program.

"I am strongly encouraged by the President's recommendations because they include a focus on improving mental health," Jeste said to a Psychiatric News reporter.

The Psychiatric News article continues: "A new initiative outlined by Obama would provide training for school personnel and help ensure that young people who need help are referred to treatment...[and this new program would] train 5,000 additional mental health professionals to serve students and young adults."

What we are looking at here is wolves circling prey.

If you don't think so, consider these hidden facts about Ritalin, which is normally considered to be a much lighter drug than any of the SSRI antidepressants (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil) or the drugs given for so-called Bipolar Disorder (Valproate, Lithium).

Ritalin, manufactured by Novartis, is the close cousin to speed which is given to perhaps four million American schoolchildren for a condition called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

ADD and ADHD, for which no organic causes have ever been found, are touted as disease-conditions that afflict the young, causing hyperactivity, unmanageability, and learning problems. Of course, when you name a disorder or a syndrome and yet can find no single provable organic cause for it, you have nothing more than a loose collection of behaviors with an arbitrary title.

Correction: you also have a pharmaceutical bonanza.

Dr. Peter Breggin, referring to an official directory of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-III-R, writes that withdrawal from amphetamine-type drugs, including Ritalin, can cause "depression, anxiety, and irritability as well as sleep problems, fatigue, and agitation." Breggin then remarks, "The individual may become suicidal in response to the depression."

The well-known Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics reveals a strange fact. It states that Ritalin is "structurally related to amphetamines ... Its pharmacological properties are essentially the same as those of the amphetamines." In other words, the only clear difference is legality. And the effects, in layman's terms, are obvious. You take speed and after awhile, sooner or later, you start crashing. You become agitated, irritable, paranoid, delusional, aggressive.

A firm and objective medical review needs to be done in all of the school shootings, to determine how many of the shooters were on, or had at one time been on, Ritalin.

Children are frequently medicated with this combination, and when we highlight such effects as aggression, psychosis, and emotional instability, it is obvious that the result is pointing toward the very real possibility of violence.

In 1986, The International Journal of the Addictions published a most important literature review by Richard Scarnati. It was called "An Outline of Hazardous Side Effects of Ritalin (Methylphenidate") [v.21(7), pp. 837-841].

Scarnati listed over a hundred adverse affects of Ritalin and indexed published journal articles for each of these symptoms.

For every one of the following (selected and quoted verbatim) Ritalin effects then, there is at least one confirming source in the medical literature:

If psychiatrists are the wolves---and they are---and children are the sheep, then what do you call the parents who permit their children to be captured by these marauders?

Am I saying that "mental health," as defined by organized psychiatry, and backed by the federal and state governments, is a vast criminal enterprise, rather than a science?

Yes, absolutely. I'm saying that because that's what it is.

Jon Rappoport

The author of an explosive collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

Monday, 28 January 2013

Most people with a mental health problem lose friends as a result, survey finds

News, 22nd January 2013.

Three quarters of people who experience mental health problems say they lose friends as a result of their illness, a survey has found.
The survey, commissioned by anti-stigma campaign Time to Change, also found that 40% of British adults would feel awkward talking to a friend who was experiencing a mental health problem. Additionally, only 27% feel it would be their responsibility to bring the subject up if they knew a friend was going through a tough time with their mental health.
But it also seems that many people would not know how to help a friend who was experiencing mental health problems, with 42% admitting they don’t feel they know enough about mental health problems to talk to a friend going through one, and one in five saying they wouldn’t know what to say. Furthermore, 21% of people feel that talking openly about it might make their friend’s situation worse.
This is despite 62% of British adults knowing someone who has experienced a mental health problem.
These findings are released as Time to Change launches its latest campaign, called It’s time to talk. It’s time to change, to encourage the nation to start a conversation around mental health. It aims to remove the awkwardness around mental health by focusing on small steps people can take to support someone experiencing a mental health problem.
The campaign is inspired by stories of real people who have been there for someone experiencing a mental illness. An advert featuring these ‘everyday heroes’ will air on TV throughout January and highlight the importance of staying in contact and being supportive when friends and family members experience a mental health problem.
“These findings show that despite many people knowing someone with a mental health problem, they still don’t feel equipped with enough knowledge to be a supportive friend,” said Sue Baker, director of Time to Change. “The misconceptions that still surround those of us with mental health problems make people worry about offending or embarrassing someone, or saying or doing the wrong thing. So people avoid seeing their friends or speaking to them, when in fact these are the very things that can be helpful.
“You don’t have to be an expert to start a conversation about mental health. Being a supportive friend can include small gestures like sending a quick text or email, or an invitation to meet up. It’s time we encouraged people to talk more openly and for mental health to stop being a part of life people are too ashamed or embarrassed to talk about.”
For more information go to: www.time-to-change.org.uk/talk-about-mental-healthPicture posed by models

Tips for helping children focus and study: Improve Sensory Integration especially in children with ADHD, hyperactivity with nutrition and lifestyle changes

Many children have trouble focusing, and those who have issues with being overactive, can have more trouble than most. Changes to the diet and the environment can make a big difference for these children. Many children are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Sometimes these children can be normal children with dietary issues that can be treated by improving diet. (See suggestions below). Some children have issues with sensory integration. These children with Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) need special guidance in order to help them process the sensory overload in their brains. SID causes all the incoming sense messages to be processed in one brain center, instead of being sourced to the various brain centers specific to processing neurological messages from the various sense centers. Because of this, all incoming information for the various senses is jumbled together for these children and they cannot separate auditory messages from visual messages. Again, these children might be helped by dietary recommendations as well.

Diet recommendations for children with ADHD, ADD or Sensory Integration

Remove all sugar from the diet of children with ADHD or sensory issues. Sweeteners can be added like honey and stevia. Many commercial products contain these now. Avoid any foods that have artificial colors or flavors. Avoid wheat and have the child checked for food allergies, particularly to wheat, gluten, dairy and nuts, as these are common food allergies.

Create a quiet study area

Because children with Sensory Integration Dysfunction are easily distracted, they should be taught to seek a quiet area for their studies, in order to stay on task. They need to be shielded from interruptions, such as children passing by, conversations or other noise, and even changes in lighting. Grey noise generators can be soothing to these children, as they mask the more distracting sounds that will cause them to lose focus.

Allow more time for tasks

These children need more time for tasks, such as reading assignments because they can be easily distracted and have trouble focusing. They cannot screen out noises such as conversations, or people passing by. If possible, they should be allowed more time on tests or a quiet, private area to take tests in. They may also need to speak the answers to someone, rather than write, as even holding a pen may trigger distraction or anxiety in some children.

Teach them to recognize and separate incoming messages

As soon as children can learn to verbalize what they are sensing, they should be encouraged to do so, even when their irritations are out of the ordinary. When a child can point out that their socks are bothering them, the distractions can be removed and the child will learn to segregate the loudest irritations. This can enable the child to self-soothe, a skill which many of them lack.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

A leading charity that deals with anxiety and other mental health related issues, Anxiety UK, has criticised the ‘Blue Monday’ campaign and labelled it a PR ‘stunt’ that belittles mental health issues.The third Monday in January was given the tag of ‘Blue Monday’ in 2005 as part of a publicity campaign by a travel company supported by the findings of a university academic.However, Anxiety UK claim the campaign undermines the work of thousands of volunteers working with sufferers across the country and does nothing to reduce the stigma attached to such conditions.The charity says it is a cheap and insensitive way of generating a few column inches of free publicity regardless of the accuracy or otherwise of their research.The ‘stunt’ has also previously been condemned by Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre who said that the formula “”failed even to make mathematical sense on their own terms”.Nicky Lidbetter, Anxiety UK’s Chief Executive, said: “It is disappointing to see anxiety and mental health related issues trivialised in this manner.“We know anecdotally at Anxiety UK that January can be a particularly difficult time of year for many anxiety sufferers dealing with the financial stress post Christmas, the dark nights and often miserable winter weather in addition to a whole range of other factors that heighten their fears.“However, each individual will be affected in different ways and present with their own unique symptoms that can be triggered by a variety of events all year round, not just in January.“It also undermines the tremendous work done by so many charity volunteers and therapists, the generous donations of our supporters and the staff working hard to help and support those affected as this is far from a one day occurrence.”ContactTerri Torevell or Dave Smithson | media@anxietyuk.org.uk / dave.smithson@anxietyuk.org.uk | 0794 7599 491 | www.anxietyuk.org.uk

6 common questions about depression

There are many myths and misconceptions around about depression, and we’ve had a lot of questions about them over the last week in the run up to the depression course. So I put together this 14 minute video addressing 6 questions such as; “I’m not pretending to be depressed, it’s a real and physical illness.” and “But antidepressants have helped me.”Hopefully the video will answer any questions you have about my approach, and it should be useful in your own work when you have skeptical clients. A brilliant little video debunking some myths about depression: Watch here

Can Brain Science Really Make You Happier, Wealthier and More Successful?

The last 12 years in the neuroscience field has been one of amazement and enlightenment as scientists discover many new amazing facts that are changing the way we think about ourselves, our abilities and our miraculous brain.
One of the greatest discoveries is that we are not “Hardwired” as once thought. Our brain is actually highly pliable and moldable making millions of new connections daily. These new connections become our references, beliefs and habits that drive our behaviors.
Many scientists refer to this as Neuroplasticity as the “Discovery of the Decade”.

Simply put, the fact that your brain is constantly changing and creating new neurons and neural connections based on your environment, pre dominant thoughts and experiences means that you can literally and deliberately retrain your own brain. The old adage that “You cannot teach an old dog new tricks” has fallen by the wayside and the truth and fact now is that not only can you teach that “Old Dog” new tricks, but that old dog can release whatever has held him or her back from reaching their true potential easier and faster than ever before. This we refer to as conscious and deliberate evolution.
It was once thought that once we grow up, our brains have a set number of neurons performing functions in a fixed way. According to the theory of neuroplasticity or brain plasticity, thinking, learning, and acting actually changes both the brain’s functional anatomy from top to bottom, and its physical anatomy.
A study in 2000 discovered that London taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus, a brain structure known to be heavily involved in learning routes and spatial representations, than London bus drivers. The study found that the size of the hippocampus correlated with the length of time being a taxi driver, suggesting that driving taxis may develop and change the hippocampus. The reason is believed to be that a taxi driver’s environment is constantly changing with more and more sensory input than fellow bus drivers, whose routes were for the most part mundane and routine.
Understanding of brain plasticity has its roots in animal brain research conducted in the 1950s, which was designed to investigate whether the environment had any effect on the structure and function of the animal brain. Researchers designed a study of rodents raised in two distinct environments: enriched and un-enriched. The animals raised in un-enriched environments were kept in isolation and had no running wheels or toys to play with. When the two groups of rodents were compared following autopsy, results yielded significant differences in their brains. The rodents raised in an enriched environment had a larger cortex, more cellular connections (synapses that lead to brain reserve), and the formation of new brain cells (neurogenesis) in the hippocampus (the structure critical to new learning and memory).

The Plasticity of the Human Brain

Another study recently showed that extensive learning of abstract information can also trigger changes in the brain. They took brain scan images of the brains of German medical students three months before their medical exam and right after the exam and compared them to brains of students who were not studying for an exam at this time. Medical students’ brains showed learning-induced changes in regions of the parietal cortex as well as in the posterior hippocampus. These regions of the brains are known to be involved in memory retrieval and learning.
Even basic thinking can change the brain! One experiment with Dr Richard Davidson involved a group of eight Buddhist monk adepts and ten volunteers who had been trained in meditation for one week. All the people tested were told to meditate on compassion and love. Two of the controls, and all of the monks, experienced an increase in the number of gamma waves in their brain during meditation. However, as soon as they stopped meditating, the volunteers’ gamma wave production returned to normal, while the monks, who had meditated on compassion for more than 10,000 hours in order to attain the rank of adept, did not experience a decrease to normal in the gamma wave production after they stopped meditating. The synchronized gamma wave area of the monks’ brains during meditation on love and compassion was found to be larger than that corresponding activation of the volunteers’ brains.

Use It or Lose It

Innercising or stimulating your brain daily is highly recommended as part of a brain-healthy plan of action especially if you want to ascertain new beliefs and habits around your health, happiness or earning more income or even growing a business.. Specific Brain enhancement Innercises has an impact on brain health and success thanks to the brain’s ability to change and be molded like clay.
When you stimulate your brain through new or unfamiliar activities, you can trigger changes in the brain, such as an increase of connections between neurons. The new neuron connections become your new ideas, thoughts and internal map of reality. When you change your familiar “internal” map, the outer world seems to magically change to match.
It now seems to be more true that ever that when you deliberately change your brain, you can actually transform your results and life.The following techniques are just a few of the proven methodologies to retrain your brain:Meditation, Visualization, Mindful Self Talk, Guided, Self-hypnosis, subliminal programming, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive Priming
Here is some good news and some challenging news:

The Challenging News:

Your brain is designed to protect you from harm and doesn’t like change.

Conscious and unconscious fears are responded to swiftly with a flight, freeze or fight response (this is both good and challenging depending on the reality of the circumstance )

Unless challenged on an ongoing basis, your brain will do just what it is currently programmed to think and do and nothing more.

If you don’t use it… you’ll lose it. Basically the lazier you are, the lazier it is.

The Good News:

Your brain is able to grow new connections, beliefs, and habits while performing at higher levels.

Your brain is your servant and requires your guidance in what you want it to do

Your brain can and does perform the most complicated tasks at an unconscious level

You can retrain your brain to keep you happier, healthier and wealthier.

You are never too old to take control of your brain and make it more powerful.

Friday, 25 January 2013

How Your Spirituality Effects Your Mental Health

Good mental health is as important as good physical health—if not more. Your mental health can affect every aspect of your life, from your relationship with others to your feelings about yourself and your place in the world, to the future you build for yourself.
Doctors and psychiatrists have long overlooked spirituality in terms of mental health, thinking that religion or beliefs really had nothing to do with it. More and more, though, they’re realizing they left a major element out of their evaluation, as well as their treatment recommendations—spirituality.

The Research is Eye-Opening

For the longest time, psychiatrists did not think spirituality had that much to do with a patient’s problems or progress. New studies, however, are showing a very strong connection. Scientists are finding that, not only those who are more spiritual aware and active less likely to suffer from certain mental health problems, but they are also at an advantage when it comes to improving.

One advantage for a spiritual person is that they are more likely to find peace and joy in life itself.

While findings are far from conclusive, as this is an area that is just beginning to get serious attention from the medical field, there is hope that more research will be done. In the meantime, more health care providers are starting to take their patients spiritual lives and needs into account.

Comfort and Joy

One advantage for a spiritual person is that they are more likely to find peace and joy in life itself. They see a grander scheme to things-- they see themselves as a piece of a greater puzzle, and this does seem to bring some comfort and contentment with their lives.
Even when things are bad, they find this something they can hold on to in order to get through the tough times. Life has meaning and purpose.

It Doesn’t Always Work

There are cases in which spiritual beliefs are found to be more of a detriment than a help. Generally, people who follow religions that are highly dogmatic and negative are worse off than non-spiritual people. Some religions tend to promote spiritual beliefs that are more related to guilt, shame, punishment and other such negative concepts. This can not only make a person more depressed and distressed, but it can also impede recovery.
It’s the more positive spiritual beliefs that give hope to people, that make them feel they have something better to live for and look forward to, that are beneficial.
Further, there are mental illnesses that are unavoidable due to there being a chemical imbalance, some type of illness or trauma. Just becoming spiritual is not going to cure someone of a physiological or biological illness.

Spirituality as a Tool for Improvement

When a spiritual person is suffering from mental health issues, spirituality should not be seen as a cure. It can be taken into account in the treatment. It’s something the health care provider can work with the patient to use. If the spiritual beliefs are positive and hopeful, they can be a great focus for someone struggling with mental health issues.
A patient might focus on a beneficial practice such as meditation. He may donating his time to charity to help others who are more in need, thus feeling better about himself and the world. He may join a positive, like-minded spiritual community so that he can find support. It’s not a cure, but spirituality definitely gives the patient and health care provider avenues to explore.

Thursday, 24 January 2013

Boyd Barrett attributes suicide rate to recession

MICHAEL O'REGAN

The recession is leading to an increased suicide rate, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said.

“The countries with the highest suicide rate increases were those most affected by the recession, namely, Greece and Ireland.” Mr Boyd Barrett said there was a sense of despair being felt by young people who either could not find work or, in the case of young nurses and teachers, were being treated as second-class citizens and asked to accept 20 per cent or 30 per cent less in salary than people who qualified a few years ago.

“Is it the case that the policies of cuts and austerity, which the Taoiseach is imposing, are leading directly to the sense of despair and hopelessness felt among young people which is leading to this increase in suicide rates?”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he sympathised with families who had lost a member through suicide. “I have visited the homes of many such people and have heard them voice the unspeakable questions of whether they should have noticed something, asked a particular question or done something.”

Mr Kenny said the budget for the National Office for Suicide Prevention had increased from €4.1 million to €8.1 million, adding that an enormous amount of work was being done.

Male youth suicide rates among the highest in Europe

The rate of suicide among young men in Ireland is one of the highest in
Europe, a major new report has warned.

An estimated 165 young men took their own lives in the Republic in 2011 – out
of a total of 525 suicides – while another 72 young men died by suicide in the
North.

The stark statistics are revealed in the first All-Ireland report on young
men and suicide which is published today.

The report said: "Although the rate of male
suicide in Ireland is relatively low within the overall EU context,
the rate among young males is amongst the highest in the EU.

"The recent spike in suicide rates among young
males in both Northern
Ireland and the Republic coincides with the economic downturn and increasing
levels of unemployment."

The report, from the Men's Health Forum of Ireland, warns there are no quick
fix solutions but there is no time for inertia or complacency. It said the two
key factors known to be effective in reducing suicide rates are educating GPs in
the recognition and treatment of depression and restricting access to lethal
means of harm.

However, it pointed out that hanging is the most frequent method used by
people taking their own lives in Ireland and and it is also one of the most
difficult to restrict.

The report aims to provide a blueprint to promote positive mental health
among young men on the island of Ireland.

Mental health not a certain catalyst for criminal activityMentally ill people make the news every day.Many believe those who suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses are dangerous criminals in training.Although violent crimes make headlines, most mentally ill offenders are charged with petty, nonviolent offenses like trespassing and loitering, said police officer Nicholas Soriano. And, although many end up in jail, this is not a lasting solution.“Some of the biggest psychiatric facilities in the country are jails,” Soriano, the homeland security coordinator for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, said.Soriano serves as a liaison between the police and the Treatment and Accountability Court, which offers an alternative to jail for those whose committal of nonviolent crime is informed by an untreated mental illness or disability. TAC participants agree to follow a treatment plan and check in with the court while complying with probation orders.Soriano said after deinstitutionalization measures, which began in the ‘60s, released mentally ill patients from long-term treatment facilities, many were not met with the necessary support and were left to fend for themselves.“The homeless population exploded,” he said. “You’ve got folks that were let out of institutions who everyday had a strict regimen. And now they’re out on the streets on their own. What happened because of that is law enforcement became frontline mental health workers. We had to transition to that.”Soriano prepares officers for this responsibility by teaching the 40-hour crisis intervention course every officer must undergo before entering the field. Advantage Behavioral Health Systems works with the police in this initiative, teaching officers to recognize signs of mental illness. ABHS also works with TAC as the mental health provider for offenders with severe and persistent mental illness.“We don’t believe that [mental illness] excuses that behavior,” ABHS Clinic Coordinator Laurie Wilburn Bailey said. “It’s just that we know that incarceration isn’t going to fix anything for when they come back out. And let me tell you, treatment court is longer for a lot of these people than any amount of time they would spend in jail.”Elisa Zarate, court coordinator for TAC, said the partnership between the court and ABHS aims to reduce recidivism rates by addressing the underlying issues of mentally ill offenders.“It’s our belief that if we, you know, catch these individuals early and get them connected to mental health treatment, then they’re less likely to be a repeat offender,” she said.Zarate said the court tries to connect indigent participants to resources they may not ordinarily be able to access. These include mental health services, but also others, to address the larger problem of poverty.Bailey said the relationship between mental illness and poverty is cyclical.“Many of our folks, their symptoms are so severe that they’re not able to work,” she said. “It can impact their ability to earn a living wage. So maybe they’re on SSI or on disability and you know, living in Athens on $670 a month — you live in poverty. If they don’t have even disability, then that means that they don’t have Medicaid, and so they’re having to figure out how to get their meds covered. And those meds are expensive.”Mental health medications can cost upwards of $800 a month, Bailey said. The cost of medication is one reason many indigent offenders don’t seek treatment until after they end up in a police car. Another is the actual symptoms of mental illness.“If someone has any of the forms of mental illness that can have a psychotic component or a paranoid component to it, the system can be scary,” she said. “It can be, you know, ‘The police are out to get me’ or ‘Those people at the mental health center are giving me poison.’ The actual symptoms of the psychosis can impede their ability to be willing to accept the treatment — because they just don’t trust very well yet.”Bailey said symptoms of mental illness can also make communicating with doctors a challenge, as patients have difficulty expressing their needs and comprehending what they hear when their minds are racing. This difficulty also affects their interactions with others in society.In fact, Bailey said, sometimes the mentally ill are perceived as threatening when they aren’t doing much at all. That is often when the police get called.“Maybe they have an odd presentation,” she said. “Maybe they don’t have a real good understanding of personal space, and so they’re making people uncomfortable downtown because they seem intimidating, or they seem like they might hurt you. If that happens enough times, they might get a charge of loitering or something that they wouldn’t have gotten had people not been uncomfortable. So it’s not necessarily that they’re more prone to criminal activity. But I think that sometimes, their symptoms might result in more police interaction.”But that interaction doesn’t have to be negative. If someone commits a misdemeanor offense and appears to have a mental illness, an officer has the option to take the offender into custody but transport him or her to a hospital instead of jail.“If you had someone who has an altered state of reality, and they’re criminally trespassing, and they refuse to leave somewhere, and you know they have a mental illness, yeah, you could arrest them for criminal trespassing,” Soriano said. “You could put them in jail on a misdemeanor — and, you know, tie up the system. Or you can transport them to the hospital and hopefully get them evaluated.”

Soriano said although it may be impossible to help everyone, there is still reason to try.“I know the cops and even mental health workers, they get a bad rap,” he said. “But we really care. We’re actually out here to try and help people. If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t be trying so hard to get people into treatment. It’s just sad that you can’t get to everybody.”